Renting as part of the solution to the housing crisis

It is no longer necessary to imagine solutions. Portugal does not lack ideas, nor technical reports, nor strategic plans that fill drawers and conferences. What is lacking is political will, courage to execute and a real commitment to those who live, build, and invest in this country. What is required now is to practice. To solve what is in plain sight, but which many prefer to ignore.
The Portuguese real estate market is experiencing a moment of enormous imbalance. House prices continue to rise sharply; rents grow at an unsustainable pace and new supply is residual. Each quarter aggravates the crisis already installed. Licensing does not keep up with demand, bureaucracy paralyzes, and the absorption time of properties in the market is increasingly shorter, a sign that there is much more demand than supply.
The first step to a serious response would be to know the real dimension of the problem. But Portugal still lacks reliable data on its housing needs. There is no rigorous survey, by region or parish, which allows us to outline an intervention strategy. The central government should start there: demand true, objective, and transparent numbers from local authorities. How many families are homeless? How many young people are looking for a house and cannot afford it? How many houses are there that are degraded, vacant or waiting for small work? Only with this information will it be possible to set priorities and build with purpose.
Renting is one of the keys to the solution, but it has been treated as a poor relation of the sector. Portugal is, historically, a country of owners. The percentage of households owning a home is one of the highest in Europe, surpassed only by Poland. This is due to decades of policies that have discouraged renting: high taxes on rents, rents frozen for years, lack of legal protection for landlords, and slow and unpredictable urban permits.
The result is what we are experiencing today: a shortage of supply, a constant increase in prices and a rental market that does not respond to real needs.
You do not need to imagine more. It is necessary to act. Imagine that the State creates a program that does not require public spending, just an intelligent redistribution of the tax burden. A program in which owners who rent houses for minimum terms of five years benefit from a tax rate on property income reduced to 8% (instead of the current 25%), and exemption from IMI during the contract period. And what about those who rent their second home for periods of 5 years to be exempt from taxes because they replace the state's obligation to provide housing for third parties?
With this measure, landlords would maintain net income, tenants would see rents reduced by between 25% and 30% and in some cases even more, and the State would compensate for the tax loss by increasing formalized contracts, reducing emergency subsidies, and combating the black economy.
With this measure, landlords would maintain net income, tenants would see rents reduced by between 25% and 30%, and the State would compensate for the tax loss by increasing formalized contracts, reducing emergency subsidies, and combating the black economy.
Add to this a simplified and fast regime for evictions for proven non-compliance, resolved in 30 days, and the owners' confidence in the market would return. To these measures, a stimulus would be added to urban rehabilitation, with a partial refund of VAT on maintenance and modernization works of properties intended for rent.
Together, these measures could bring back to the market tens of thousands of homes that are currently stopped, illegal, degraded or simply abandoned. It is estimated that renting alone, well structured, could respond to about 25% of the current housing needs in the country.
The most important thing would be to ensure stability and predictability. A program of this nature needs a firm political commitment between the major parties, signed and respected for at least fifteen years. This is the only way to create confidence to invest, build and rent.
Portugal is not facing a real estate bubble; it is facing a crisis of accessibility and vision. While we discuss diagnoses, the problem worsens in plain sight. Renting, if treated seriously, can be a decisive vector to restore balance to the market and dignity to families.
The country does not need to imagine more. It needs to be done. With pragmatism, responsibility, and courage. Because what is at stake is not just houses. It is the right to live, with stability and hope, in the country we have built.